the Story of Talos of Crete
Talos was one of the gifts given in love to Europa by Zeus.
He was a giant, bronze automaton or living statue that was
forged by the divine smith, Hephaistus and his role was to act
as her personal protector.
His work involved patrolling the island, circling it three times
each day, and to protect it from invasion by pirates by hurling
rocks at enemy ships off the coast. If any fugitives managed to
evade this onslaught he leapt into fire and, when red-hot,
crushed them in a fiery death embrace. He, like Achilles, had
one physical weakness.
In the back of his leg was a small vein which he plugged with a
metal nail. His end came through trickery by Jason and the
Argonauts. When returning from their travels to Colchis, the
Argonauts tried to stop for drinking water in Crete but were
prevented initially from doing so by Talos.
However, with the assistance of the sorceress, Medea, he was
tricked and eventually slain. There are several versions of how
he met his demise. One is that Medea deliberately distracted
Talos, causing him to stumble on the rocks which led to the nail
closing his vein falling out and his powers, in the form of a
divine fluid, drained out of him.
Another version is that Medea cast a spell on him, paralyzing
him and then pulling out the nail herself. A third story relates
that he died by the arrow of one of the Argonauts, Poias, when
he tried to prevent them from landing on the island.
From the genealogy of the epic poet Cinaethon, Talos was
depicted as a Cretan sun-god, a son of Kres (Crete) and the
father of the fire-god, Hephaistos. Possibly, he was also the
father of the Cretan moon-goddess, Pasiphae who was also the
wife of King Minos. Others saw him as a bronze bull or the last
of the bronze race of men. In the Cretan language, talos means
the sun and in Greek, cut down or hewn.